Book I. Chap. vii. Sect. 5. Decrease of soils. And any increase of the revenues of the landed proprietors, which may have taken place, must (abstracting from changes in the value of money) be traced, not certainly to a decrease which Supposed has not occurred in the returns to agricultural in- agricultural dustry on the soils governing prices; but to a gradual increase of produce, common to all soils, but greatest in amount on the best; and to successive improvements in the efficiency of agricultural capital. Efficiency. SECTION VI. On some Indications of the real Sources of increasing Rents, which are to be obtained in particular Instances, by observing, First, the Variations which take place in the comparative Numbers of the agricultural and non-agricultural Classes; and, Secondly, the Alterations which shew themselves in the Landlord's proportion of the Produce. Book I. Chap. vii. IT has been stated, that nothing short of a precise enumeration of the wages and capital expended Sect. 6. in obtaining similar quantities of produce, will enable us to decide, with perfect certainty, upon the com- cations of Two Indi increased parative actual fertility of the soils which govern agricultural 1 The comparative potential fertility of soils, that is, the fertility each would be found to possess after having been for some time cultivated, with the most and best industry, skill, and means, is something very different from their comparative actual fertility; a circumstance which should always be remembered, when the policy of cultivating apparently barren wastes is under consideration. Efficiency. Book I. Chap. vii. Two Indi prices, either in different countries at the same time, Sect. 6. or in the same country at different times. Such a comparison may be often impossible. Yet in obcations of serving the growth of the territorial revenues of agricultural a country, we shall naturally be desirous to know, Efficiency. in every instance, whether that growth has pro increased ceeded "from the employment of an additional 66 quantity of labor with a proportionally less re"turn," (Mr. Ricardo's sole cause of rents',) or from the more genial sources, of increased produce obtained by increased capital, and improvements in the efficiency of the capital previously employed. There are two circumstances which may guide us in our enquiries on this point, if not to perfect and conclusive certainty, yet to a high and satisfactory degree of probability: and these are, First, the variations which take place in the relative numbers of the agricultural and non-agricultural classes. Secondly, the alterations which may be traced in the proportion of the produce taken by the landlords. Indeed, the evidence furnished by these circumstances ought to be accepted, as we shall see, by the school of Mr. Ricardo, as perfect and demonstrative, although their writings forbid us to suppose that this ever occurred to them. When, during the spread of tillage, “an ad"ditional quantity of labor is employed with a "proportionally less return," the numbers of the 1 "Rent invariably proceeds from the employment of an "additional quantity of labor with a proportionally less return." Ricardo, 1st edit. p. 60. Sect. 6. cations of agricultural agriculturists must be on the increase, compared Book I. with those of the non-agriculturists. A simple cal- Chap. vii. culation will shew this. Let 2,000,000 of cultivators produce 4,000,000 of quarters of corn, suffi- Two Indicient to maintain 4,000,000 of people: the number increased of agriculturists and non-agriculturists in such a Efficiency. community (abstracting from foreign trade in corn,) will be just equal. Let the population increase to 8,000,000: if the fertility of the fresh soils now cultivated equal the fertility of the old soils, then 4,000,000 of cultivators will be able to produce food for the 8,000,000 of people, and the relative numbers of agriculturists and non-agriculturists will remain as they were. But if to yield the food of the additional 4,000,000 of people the fresh ground cultivated requires "an additional quantity of labor "with a proportionally less return," then a larger number than 2,000,000 of the increased population must be employed in producing food for themselves and the other 2,000,000. Let that larger number be 3,000,000, and then 5,000,000 of agriculturists will be employed in producing the food of 8,000,000 of people. The agriculturists constituted one-half of the population before its increase, they will now constitute five-eighths of it. And if the numbers of the community continue to increase, and the ground from which their additional supplies of food are raised, continues to absorb "an additional quantity of labor with a proportionally less return," then the numbers of the cultivators must also continue to increase relatively to the numbers of the non-cultivators. 66 BOOK I. Chap. vii. In the next place, if rents in a country occupied by farmers, should ever rise from that cause alone, which has been so confidently stated by Two Indi- Mr. Ricardo, to be the sole possible cause of a increased rise of rents, namely, "the employment of an adagricultural Efficiency."ditional quantity of labor with a proportionally cations of "less return," and a consequent transfer to the landlords of a part of the produce before obtained on the better soils; then the average proportion of the gross produce taken by the landlords as rent, will necessarily increase. This is almost self-evident, but it may be as well perhaps to give a short calculation. Let B, C and D, then, be soils cultivated with equal capitals, &c.; let B produce 12 quarters of corn, C 14, and D 16; then, B yielding the ordinary profits of stock, C will have 2, and D 4 quarters of corn as surplus profits or rent. The landlord's proportion of the produce of C and D taken together, will be 6 quarters out of 30, or one-fifth. During the progress of population, let it be necessary to cultivate another soil A, yielding to the same quantity of capital which is employed on B, C and D, only 8 quarters of corn. Then as 8 quarters must now yield the ordinary profits of stock on the capital employed, B, which before paid no rent, will have 4 quarters as surplus profits or rent, C 6, and D 8 quarters: and the landlord will take from the soils paying rents, 18 quarters out of 42, or a fraction more than two-fifths of their gross produce, instead of one-fifth, his former proportion. And so progressively, as additional labor and capital are em 66 Book I. Chap. vii. Two Indi increased ployed in tillage, with a proportionally less return, additional portions of the produce of the old soils Sect. 6. will continue to be transferred to the landlords as surplus profits, in order to equalize the profits made cations of by all the cultivators; and a larger proportion of agricultural the whole produce will thus, step by step, assume Efficiency. the shape of rent'. In any country, therefore, in which there has been a general rise of rents, proceeding “from the employment of an additional quantity of labor with a proportionally less re"turn," and the consequent transmutation of a part of the produce of the old soils into rent, these two results must be observable: First, the industry of a larger proportion of the population must be devoted to agriculture; Secondly, the proportion of the gross produce paid to the landlords, as rent, must have increased. If these two results are not observable, these rents must have increased from some other cause or causes, and not from "the employment of additional labor in agriculture "with a proportionally less return;" and in that case, Mr. Ricardo and his school must have been wrong, when they supposed this last to be the only possible cause of increasing rents. 66 This reasoning is so obvious, that when brought 1 Mr. Ricardo himself was perfectly aware, (indeed he could not be otherwise,) that this was a necessary conclusion from his doctrine as to the one sole cause of augmented rents. "The same cause," he says, "the difficulty of production, raises "the exchangeable value of raw produce, and raises also the |